Japan Visa Requirements for Tourists: Visa-Free Entry and Visit Japan Web

If your passport is not on the exemption list you need a short-term stay visa before departure, applied for at a Japanese embassy or consulate or through an accredited agency, normally with a passport, photo, itinerary, proof of funds, flight and hotel bookings and sometimes a guarantor or invitation letter. Processing takes about five working days for straightforward applications and the visa is usually free for tourism. Japan’s e-Visa system lets residents of a growing set of countries, among them Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cambodia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, the UK and the US, apply online for a single-entry 90-day tourist visa, and Chinese nationals living in China can use it through agencies for 15- or 30-day stays. e-Visa holders must arrive by air or scheduled ferry and show the visa notice on a phone screen, not a printout. Chinese nationals also gained a 10-year multiple-entry tourist visa option in 2025, and Indian, Filipino and Vietnamese travellers who have previously visited Japan or a G7 country can apply for multiple-entry visas. Rules for these groups move often, so treat the MOFA site as the only authority.

Visit Japan Web is the government’s free pre-arrival service. Create an account, enter your passport details, flight, Japanese address (the first hotel is fine) and the customs declaration, and it generates QR codes for immigration and customs; since 2025 the two have been merged into a single code at most airports. At the border you scan the code at the immigration kiosk, which then takes your fingerprints and photo, before a short conversation with an officer who stamps the passport (or hands you a landing permission sticker). At customs you scan the same code at an electronic declaration gate and walk through without filling in the paper form.

It is optional, not mandatory: the yellow paper customs form and the immigration card are still handed out on the plane and work fine. But it saves 10 to 20 minutes at Narita, Haneda, Kansai, Chubu (Nagoya), Fukuoka and New Chitose (Sapporo), where the queues for paper-form travellers are consistently longer, and you can register the whole family under one account. Do it at home on Wi-Fi, screenshot the QR code, and keep it with your passport; immigration halls have patchy signal. Visit Japan Web does not replace a visa and does not pre-approve entry; that is what JESTA will do.

Japan has no six-month passport validity rule, whichever airport you use, from Haneda in Tokyo to Kansai near Kobe and Osaka: your passport must simply be valid for the whole of your intended stay, though airlines sometimes apply stricter rules of their own, so renew if you have under three months left. You must be able to show you will leave, so an onward or return ticket is expected, and officers may ask about funds and accommodation, especially on second or third visits within a year. Everyone aged 16 and over is fingerprinted (both index fingers) and photographed on arrival, with exemptions only for diplomats and some special permanent residents; refusing means refusal of entry.

The temporary visitor status permits sightseeing anywhere from Hokkaido to Kyushu, visiting friends and relatives, unpaid business activities such as meetings, contract signing and market research, conferences, short study courses of under 90 days, amateur sports and cultural events, and medical visits, and climbing Mount Fuji or walking the Kumano Kodo counts as tourism. It does not permit paid work of any kind for a Japanese employer, including bar work, teaching English casually, modelling or farm stays with pay, and it does not permit enrolling in a school for longer than the stay. Working remotely for a foreign employer while on holiday falls in a grey area that is generally tolerated for short visits; anyone planning to spend months working online should use the digital nomad visa below rather than risk a “working without permission” finding.

You cannot open a bank account, rent a flat on a long lease, buy a SIM contract (prepaid tourist SIMs and eSIMs are fine) or register a residence as a temporary visitor. You can rent a car with the right licence documents (useful in Okinawa and Hokkaido), buy property, and use tax-free shopping by showing the passport with its temporary visitor stamp.

Extensions of a visa-free stay are rare and discretionary. Only the seven nationalities listed above (Austria, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Switzerland and the UK) have a treaty right to apply for a further 90 days, up to 6 months total; everyone else needs a genuine reason such as illness, a cancelled flight or a family emergency. Apply at a regional immigration bureau (Tokyo’s is in Shinagawa, with others in Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sapporo and Sendai) before the current permission expires, with the application form, passport, a reason in writing, proof of funds and an onward ticket; the fee for an extension of period of stay is about 6,000 yen (5,500 yen online) and processing takes two to four weeks, during which you may stay. Leaving and re-entering (“border run”) to reset the 90 days works occasionally for South Korea or Taiwan trips from Fukuoka or Naha, but immigration tracks days: more than about 180 days in Japan in any 12 months on visa exemptions invites refusal and a request to explain yourself, and officers have discretion to deny entry outright.

Overstaying is a criminal offence. Even a day over is recorded; a longer overstay means detention at an immigration facility, deportation at your own cost and a five-year ban on re-entry (ten years for repeat offenders, and a permanent ban if a prison sentence was involved). Those who report themselves to immigration before being caught and leave voluntarily under the departure order system get a one-year ban instead. If you realise you will overstay because of illness or a missed flight, go to an immigration bureau immediately with evidence; they can grant a short extension, but only before the date on your stamp.

Japan is building an electronic travel authorisation modelled on the US ESTA, called JESTA (Japan Electronic System for Travel Authorization). Under the plan, every visa-exempt traveller will complete an online application with passport details, trip purpose, address in Japan and a face photo before boarding, and receive a digital approval; visa-required nationals will carry on applying for visas as now. The Justice Ministry brought the target forward from 2030 and currently aims to launch in fiscal 2028 (the year to March 2029), with an exact start date, fee and validity period still to be announced. Until it launches there is nothing to apply for, and websites offering a “Japan ETA” or “JESTA application” today are scams. We will update this page when the Immigration Services Agency publishes the rules.

Since March 2024 Japan has had a digital nomad visa (formally the “designated activities” status for remote workers) that allows a stay of up to six months for employees or self-employed people of companies outside Japan who earn at least 10 million yen a year (about 65,000 USD), hold private health insurance and come from one of the 49 visa-exempt countries with a Japanese tax treaty, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore, South Korea and most of Europe. Spouses and children can accompany you, the visa cannot be extended, and you can reapply only after six months out of the country; it does not lead to residency and holders cannot register as residents. Applications go to a Japanese embassy with a certificate of eligibility. Full details, the document list and the income rules are in our Japan digital nomad visa guide.

Working holiday visas give 18 to 30 year olds (35 for some countries) from around 30 partner countries, including Australia, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, South Korea and Taiwan, a year in Japan with permission to work; apply through your home country’s Japanese embassy with quotas and deadlines that vary by nationality.

Adults may bring in three bottles of alcohol (about 760 ml each), 200 cigarettes or 50 cigars or 250 g of other tobacco or 10 packs of heated-tobacco sticks (the limits combine proportionally if you mix types), two ounces (about 56 ml) of perfume, and other goods worth up to 200,000 yen in total, with individual items under 10,000 yen not counted. Travellers under 20 have no alcohol or tobacco allowance. Cash, cheques and securities over 1 million yen in total must be declared on a separate form, and so must more than 1 kg of gold. Fresh fruit, vegetables, plants and most meat products (including sausages, jerky and ham, vacuum-packed or not) are prohibited or need quarantine inspection, and the fines for undeclared meat are stiff; this applies at Narita as much as at any regional airport. Counterfeit goods, any cannabis product including CBD oils with detectable THC, firearms, swords without a permit and pornography depicting minors are banned outright.

Medicines are where visitors run into trouble. You may bring up to a one-month supply of prescription medicine, a two-month supply of over-the-counter medicine and up to 24 units of external-use items such as creams and eye drops without paperwork, as long as they are for your own use and carried with you. Anything more, and all injectable drugs other than a one-month supply in prefilled syringes or pens (insulin and EpiPens are fine), requires a Yunyu Kakunin-sho (import confirmation, formerly the Yakkan Shomei) obtained in advance through the Ministry of Health’s online system, which takes a few weeks. Some common Western medicines are illegal regardless of quantity: anything containing more than 10 percent pseudoephedrine (Sudafed, Actifed, many “D” cold remedies), Vicks and other inhalers containing levmetamfetamine, amphetamine-based ADHD drugs such as Adderall and Dexedrine (methylphenidate, Ritalin and Concerta, is permitted with a narcotics import certificate), and codeine above low over-the-counter strengths. Travellers who need narcotics or psychotropics for medical reasons, including medical cannabis, strong painkillers and some sleeping pills, need a separate narcotics import permit from the regional Narcotics Control Department. Carry prescriptions and keep medicines in original packaging.

Children need their own passport and, if their nationality requires one, their own visa; there is no separate child form, and parents complete Visit Japan Web for each family member under one account. Children aged 15 and under are not fingerprinted or photographed. Japan does not require a consent letter for a child travelling with one parent, though your airline or home country might. Put the family hotel on every form as the address in Japan.

Re-entry on the same trip is simple: if you leave for a side trip to Seoul, Taipei or Busan (the Busan ferries sail from Fukuoka and Shimonoseki) and come back, you receive a fresh 90 days (or 15 or 30) each time, subject to the 180-days-in-a-year scrutiny described above. There is no requirement to wait a set number of days between visits, and no limit on the number of visits in a year, but each arrival is a fresh decision by an officer who can see your history. The departure tax of 3,000 yen (raised from 1,000 yen on 1 July 2026) is collected through your air or ferry ticket, and unused tax-free shopping purchases must be exported unopened, with refunds from 1 November 2026 collected at the airport counter before you fly.

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